Friends
I hope everyone enjoyed the Super Bowl, or at least some of the commercials, for those of you who are not sports inclined. In the end, the New York Giants representing the NFC, were the winners and that is supposed to be good for stocks (hey, us stock market participants will look for confirmation from any source). The old adage is that if the NFC wins, stocks go up that year. Now whether there is any real evidence that this commonly occurs is beside the point. Never let facts get in the way of a good superstition.
Anyway, the stock market was in a coma today, as stocks began the day down some 50 Dow points and for 3 to 4 hours did not move 5 points either way. Other than Apple continuing its rise to the moon (hey Newt, maybe they can help you get that colony started up there), most issues were fairly quiet. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down a quiet 17 points to close at 12,845. The S&P 500 was down less than a point to finish at 1344. Gold was down $17 to close near $1723, and oil was down $.67 to finish the day near $97.17per barrel WTI. After the recent gains, if we can have these types of quiet, “backing and filling” days, it would do wonders in creating some investor confidence. Last year’s volatility caused many investors to simply head for the sidelines and stay there.
Once again, we spend the day waiting on some deal in Greece (talk about waiting for Godot). We certainly hope that the markets haven’t set themselves up for a disappointment out of Greece this week. Traders may sell the news whichever way it goes. In the meantime we get more earnings reports this week including Coca Cola tomorrow (was it just me, or were those polar bear commercials pretty stupid yesterday?) as well as Disney, and Visa later in the week. We’ll see how the week develops news wise and keep an eye on S&P support and resistance levels. We’ll keep you informed.
Have a nice evening everyone.
